UK: Finance And Banking Regulatory Update - February 2011

Bribery Act

We recently reported on a possible review of the Bribery Act and
advised that final guidance was expected to be published by the end
of January. Publication of that guidance has been delayed (probably
because of increased public and political pressure) and is now not
expected until mid-late February.

The draft guidance sets out six principles for commercial
organisations to help them plan for the new anti-bribery
legislation:

risk assessment;

top level commitment;

due diligence;

clear, practical and accessible policies and procedures;

effective implementation; and

monitoring and review.

The final guidance may look significantly different to this but
at the very least companies will broadly need to consider these
principles when implementing the procedures to prevent bribery
which the Act requires, and now is a good time to start.

There has been no suggestion that the Bribery Act itself will be
amended, although commencement will be delayed by three months from
publication of the Guidance to ensure that companies have time to
implement any changes required.

Clyde & Co is hosting two presentations in March in
association with the Ministry of Justice, the Serious Fraud Office
("SFO") and Transparency International to discuss the
guidance and enforcement of the Act. Please see our website for
more information.

BAE Fined in Criminal Prosecution

You may recall the controversial plea bargain in the Innospec
case earlier in 2010 and now the Courts have sanctioned yet another
plea bargain with BAE (see below). This gives a ray of hope to
global commercial entities who may be fighting corruption charges
on both sides of the Atlantic or in other jurisdictions and who
want the certainty of reaching a global settlement rather than
fighting multiple and long running battles.

BAE was fined £500,000 and ordered to pay £225,000
costs following its guilty plea in November for books and records
offences in breach of section 221 of the Companies Act 1985. This
was part of a controversial plea bargain arrangement with the SFO
under which BAE agreed to pay £29.5m in reparations to the
Tanzanian Government and the SFO agreed not to bring any
prosecutions for any bribery offences which might come to light
pre-dating February 2010. The guilty plea followed BAE's global
settlement with the US Department of Justice and UK's Serious
Fraud Office in 2010. By making no admissions as to bribery
offences BAE has been able to ensure that it is still able to
tender for Government and EU contracts. The Judge noted the
pressure placed upon the Court to ensure the fine it ordered was
limited, disclosing that under the deal the fine would be deducted
from BAE's reparations to Tanzania and that this was
unsatisfactory. The judge also said that the UK Plea Agreement had
been loosely and hastily drafted but despite this, and to the
surprise of many commentators, the Court agreed the settlement.

The SFO initially began its investigations in 2004, after
allegations concerning a contract in Saudi Arabia. The
investigations centred on a contract agreed in 1999 between BAE and
the government of Tanzania for US$ 39.97 million. This contract was
for the supply of a radar defence system for Dar-es-Slam
International Airport. BAE engaged Shailesh Vithlani, a local
businessman, to advise on its negotiations with the Tanzania
government. Between January 2000 and December 2005 approximately
US$ 12.4 million was paid to Mr Vithlani. BAE has since accepted
that a large proportion of this would have been used to favour BAE
in negotiations with the government.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Bean noted that he was
"surprised to find a prosecutor granting a blanket
indemnity for all offences committed in the past, whether disclosed
or otherwise". In his judgment, Mr Justice Bean makes it
clear that he thinks the SFO had been too lenient with BAE. He also
noted that the "structure of this Settlement Agreement
places moral pressure on the Court to keep the fine to a minimum so
that the reparation is kept at a maximum." BAE was also
ordered to pay £225,000 towards the prosecution's
costs.

European Reform

As part of the continuation of financial reform, the European
Union has established three new supervisory authorities and a
systemic risk board to tighten the net on financial regulation in
Europe. The new authorities are intended to achieve better
co-ordination between national authorities, and to detect potential
risk.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") was established
on 24 November 2010, and has been operating since 1 January 2011.
Located in London, the EBA has effectively taken over all existing
and ongoing tasks from the Commission of European Banking
Supervisors ("CEBS"). The main tasks of the EBA are: to
develop guidelines, supervise the implementation of EU legislation,
co-ordinate supervisory authorities and improve transparency and
disclosure of information. It is hoped that having the EBA in
London there will be a particular benefit to the City, as it will
prevent regulatory arbitrage, and encourage co-ordination.

The European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA")
was established to encourage supervisory coordination between
securities regulators. The ESMA has effectively taken over the
function of the Committee of European Securities Regulators
("CESR"). The main functions of ESMA are to monitor
systemic risks of cross-border financial institutions, resolve
disagreements between national authorities and draft technical
standards that are legally binding in EU member states. ESMA also
contributes to the work of the European Systemic Risk Board.

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority
("EIOPA") has also been established and functions as an
independent advisory board to the European Parliament, the Council
of the European Union and the European Commission. Its
responsibilities include ensuring transparency of financial markets
and protection of insurance policy holders.

It will be interesting to see whether these reforms will have
any real effect in substance, but it is seems to be a step in the
right direction to providing more stable, transparent and
co-ordinated markets.

MiFID II Review

On 8 December 2010, the European Commission published the MiFID
II Review paper. The proposed changes to MiFID will be far-reaching
and will impact regulated firms significantly. As part of the
Review, the EC has suggested an abolition of execution-only
business, and an extension of the products covered by MiFID
regulation. Changes have also been proposed regarding the
inducements regime, to increase transparency. The responses to the
Review will be available on the EC website, and the finalised EC
proposal is currently scheduled for release in Spring 2011.
However, MiFID II already faces strong criticism from the banking
industry with suggestions that it isn't really necessary and
just a knee jerk reaction to the credit crunch. Click here for a link to the full Review
paper.

FSA fines RBS, NatWest and Barclays

The FSA has continued its string of fines, this time clamping
down on the big banks.

In the first few weeks of the New Year, the FSA fined NatWest
and RBS £2.8 million for poor complaints handling. The FSA
found that RBS and NatWest failed to establish an adequate
complaints handling team, and that the complaints team in place did
not take account of all relevant considerations. The FSA has
suggested that senior management should be more involved to ensure
complaints are adequately dealt with.

Shortly thereafter, Barclays found itself facing a fine of
£7.7 million for miss-selling funds to investors. Despite
identifying problems with the sales of the fund in question early
on, Barclays failed to rectify these problems. Barclays' main
failing was in providing inadequate advice. The FSA found that
Barclays' staff were not sufficiently trained to provide
investors with suitable advice.

The fine imposed is the largest ever for failings of retail
advice and retail sales. The size of the fine was determined
according to the financial resources of Barclays, the seriousness
of the breaches, and the deterrent effect to others. It is likely
that the vulnerability of those affected, most of whom were over
retirement age, was a contributing factor to the size of the fine.
Peter Vicary-Smith of the Consumer association Which? has said that
the fine imposed by the FSA is too small, and will not act as a
strong enough deterrent. However, Barclays has already started to
compensate the 12,331 people affected could face a possible
£60 million redress bill. Not to mention the cost to Barclays
of investigating, and fixing the problem within the bank. In a
separate offence, Barclays Capital has also been fined £1.2
million for failing to protect and segregate client money held in
sterling money market deposits.

Third Party Payments to unauthorised companies uncovered

In December 2010, the FSA banned and fined a number of
accountants working for Natrocell for making payments to third
parties without effective checks or controls on those payments.

SLRV, an accountancy firm was initially instructed by Natrocell
when Natrocell's shareholders decided to raise capital by
selling its shares. SLRV was aware that shares were to be sold by
foreign entities not authorised by the FSA. Furthermore, these
foreign third parties were to receive 60% commission.
Communications were made between SLRV and the third parties using
Hotmail and Gmail accounts, and sales were made using methods of
cold calling.

Numerous customers took up their concerns directly with SLRV
regarding the way the shares were being sold, and investors queried
the foreign entities. SLRV failed to realise the problems with
Natrocell, and did not inform the FSA as a result of scant regard
to money laundering procedures and financial regulation.

SLRV was fined £163,140, and three employees were also
fined and banned, with the Money Laundering Reporting Officer,
Laurence Finger, being personally fined £35,000. The FSA
found that Mr Finger did not properly understand the money
laundering reporting rules, and was not properly trained to
understand the obvious red flags.

With the dawning of the Bribery Act coming into force, it is
vital that firms have in place adequate procedures and measures to
prevent obvious failings going under the radar. Firms must
undertake proper due diligence of their own, and not rely on that
obtained by others.

Senior manager jailed for insider dealing and money
laundering

On 21 January 2011, Neil Rollins, a former senior manager of a
waste industry firm, was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment for
insider dealing and money laundering. Mr Rollins was also ordered
to pay nearly £200,000 in compensation.

When Mr Rollins discovered the worsening financial position of
PM Group plc, he sold his entire shareholding, and told his wife to
do the same. When the financial position of the company was
announced to the market, the share price immediately fell by 17%
and continued to do so for weeks thereafter. On discovering the
FSA's investigations into these dealings, he attempted to hide
his conduct by laundering the proceeds, something that the FSA
considered aggravated the crime. It is an interesting debate as to
whether he did in fact launder the proceeds from this sale, as the
sale itself was not actually benefitting from the crime, but merely
preventing suffering a loss.

There was a separate civil action in this matter, where Rollins
tried to argue that the FSA did not have the power to bring
proceedings for money laundering offences. The Supreme Court
confirmed on 28 July 2010 that the FSA did have such powers.

Shortly after Rollins was convicted, a city banker and his wife
were sentenced for insider dealing. The couple pocketed nearly
£600,000 as a result of their insider dealing. His Honour,
Judge Leonard QC said that sentences need to deter others:
"Those rogue traders that let down the honest, discreet
majority must be made to pay". Margaret Cole of the FSA
added: "people who commit these market offences will not
go unpunished." These convictions show that insider
dealing is a real focus for the FSA at the moment.

Revised FSA Remuneration Code: A proportionate response?

On 1 January 2011, the FSA's Revised Remuneration Code came
into force rolling out a radical new remuneration regime to around
2,500 financial services firms in the UK. The implications for
remuneration structure and policy are set out in an article which
can be viewed here. Whilst directly relevant to the
financial services sector, the insurance sector should take note as
we expect a similar regime for the insurance sector as part of the
Solvency II Directive. This is currently due to be implemented at
the end of 2012 although it is generally expected that the
implementation date will be pushed back into January 2013. Further
details on this new regime are expected during the course of 2011
and we will keep you updated on any developments.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.

To print this article, all you need is to be registered on Mondaq.com.

Click to Login as an existing user or Register so you can print this article.

In a busy year for anti-money laundering (AML) policy and legislative developments, the Financial Conduct Authority has published its annual anti-money laundering report for the year ended 31 March 2018.

This service is completely free. Access 250,000 archived articles from 100+ countries and get a personalised email twice a week covering developments (and yes, our lawyers like to think you’ve read our Disclaimer).

Email Address

Company Name

Password

Confirm Password

Position

Mondaq Topics -- Select your Interests

Accounting

Anti-trust

Commercial

Compliance

Consumer

Criminal

Employment

Energy

Environment

Family

Finance

Government

Healthcare

Immigration

Insolvency

Insurance

International

IP

Law Performance

Law Practice

Litigation

Media & IT

Privacy

Real Estate

Strategy

Tax

Technology

Transport

Wealth Mgt

Regions

Africa

Asia

Asia Pacific

Australasia

Canada

Caribbean

Europe

European Union

Latin America

Middle East

U.K.

United States

Worldwide Updates

Registration (you must scroll down to set your data preferences)

Mondaq Ltd requires you to register and provide information that personally identifies you, including your content preferences, for three primary purposes (full details of Mondaq’s use of your personal data can be found in our Privacy and Cookies Notice):

To allow you to personalize the Mondaq websites you are visiting to show content ("Content") relevant to your interests.

To enable features such as password reminder, news alerts, email a colleague, and linking from Mondaq (and its affiliate sites) to your website.

Mondaq hopes that our registered users will support us in maintaining our free to view business model by consenting to our use of your personal data as described below.

Mondaq has a "free to view" business model. Our services are paid for by Contributors in exchange for Mondaq providing them with access to information about who accesses their content. Once personal data is transferred to our Contributors they become a data controller of this personal data. They use it to measure the response that their articles are receiving, as a form of market research. They may also use it to provide Mondaq users with information about their products and services.

Details of each Contributor to which your personal data will be transferred is clearly stated within the Content that you access. For full details of how this Contributor will use your personal data, you should review the Contributor’s own Privacy Notice.

Please indicate your preference below:

Yes, I am happy to support Mondaq in maintaining its free to view business model by agreeing to allow Mondaq to share my personal data with Contributors whose Content I access

No, I do not want Mondaq to share my personal data with Contributors

Also please let us know whether you are happy to receive communications promoting products and services offered by Mondaq:

Yes, I am happy to received promotional communications from Mondaq

No, please do not send me promotional communications from Mondaq

Terms & Conditions

Mondaq.com (the Website) is owned and managed by Mondaq Ltd (Mondaq). Mondaq grants you a non-exclusive, revocable licence to access the Website and associated services, such as the Mondaq News Alerts (Services), subject to and in consideration of your compliance with the following terms and conditions of use (Terms). Your use of the Website and/or Services constitutes your agreement to the Terms. Mondaq may terminate your use of the Website and Services if you are in breach of these Terms or if Mondaq decides to terminate the licence granted hereunder for any reason whatsoever.

Use of www.mondaq.com

To Use Mondaq.com you must be: eighteen (18) years old or over; legally capable of entering into binding contracts; and not in any way prohibited by the applicable law to enter into these Terms in the jurisdiction which you are currently located.

You may use the Website as an unregistered user, however, you are required to register as a user if you wish to read the full text of the Content or to receive the Services.

You may not modify, publish, transmit, transfer or sell, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, link, display, or in any way exploit any of the Content, in whole or in part, except as expressly permitted in these Terms or with the prior written consent of Mondaq. You may not use electronic or other means to extract details or information from the Content. Nor shall you extract information about users or Contributors in order to offer them any services or products.

In your use of the Website and/or Services you shall: comply with all applicable laws, regulations, directives and legislations which apply to your Use of the Website and/or Services in whatever country you are physically located including without limitation any and all consumer law, export control laws and regulations; provide to us true, correct and accurate information and promptly inform us in the event that any information that you have provided to us changes or becomes inaccurate; notify Mondaq immediately of any circumstances where you have reason to believe that any Intellectual Property Rights or any other rights of any third party may have been infringed; co-operate with reasonable security or other checks or requests for information made by Mondaq from time to time; and at all times be fully liable for the breach of any of these Terms by a third party using your login details to access the Website and/or Services

however, you shall not: do anything likely to impair, interfere with or damage or cause harm or distress to any persons, or the network; do anything that will infringe any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights of Mondaq or any third party; or use the Website, Services and/or Content otherwise than in accordance with these Terms; use any trade marks or service marks of Mondaq or the Contributors, or do anything which may be seen to take unfair advantage of the reputation and goodwill of Mondaq or the Contributors, or the Website, Services and/or Content.

Mondaq reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to take any action that it deems necessary and appropriate in the event it considers that there is a breach or threatened breach of the Terms.

Mondaq’s Rights and Obligations

Unless otherwise expressly set out to the contrary, nothing in these Terms shall serve to transfer from Mondaq to you, any Intellectual Property Rights owned by and/or licensed to Mondaq and all rights, title and interest in and to such Intellectual Property Rights will remain exclusively with Mondaq and/or its licensors.

Mondaq shall use its reasonable endeavours to make the Website and Services available to you at all times, but we cannot guarantee an uninterrupted and fault free service.

Mondaq reserves the right to make changes to the services and/or the Website or part thereof, from time to time, and we may add, remove, modify and/or vary any elements of features and functionalities of the Website or the services.

Mondaq also reserves the right from time to time to monitor your Use of the Website and/or services.

Disclaimer

The Content is general information only. It is not intended to constitute legal advice or seek to be the complete and comprehensive statement of the law, nor is it intended to address your specific requirements or provide advice on which reliance should be placed. Mondaq and/or its Contributors and other suppliers make no representations about the suitability of the information contained in the Content for any purpose. All Content provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Mondaq and/or its Contributors and other suppliers hereby exclude and disclaim all representations, warranties or guarantees with regard to the Content, including all implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Mondaq expressly excludes all representations, warranties, obligations, and liabilities arising out of or in connection with all Content. In no event shall Mondaq and/or its respective suppliers be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Content or performance of Mondaq’s Services.

General

Mondaq may alter or amend these Terms by amending them on the Website. By continuing to Use the Services and/or the Website after such amendment, you will be deemed to have accepted any amendment to these Terms.

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and you irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales to settle any dispute which may arise out of or in connection with these Terms. If you live outside the United Kingdom, English law shall apply only to the extent that English law shall not deprive you of any legal protection accorded in accordance with the law of the place where you are habitually resident ("Local Law"). In the event English law deprives you of any legal protection which is accorded to you under Local Law, then these terms shall be governed by Local Law and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts where you are habitually resident.

You may print and keep a copy of these Terms, which form the entire agreement between you and Mondaq and supersede any other communications or advertising in respect of the Service and/or the Website.

No delay in exercising or non-exercise by you and/or Mondaq of any of its rights under or in connection with these Terms shall operate as a waiver or release of each of your or Mondaq’s right. Rather, any such waiver or release must be specifically granted in writing signed by the party granting it.

If any part of these Terms is held unenforceable, that part shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to give effect to the intent of the parties, and the Terms shall continue in full force and effect.

Mondaq shall not incur any liability to you on account of any loss or damage resulting from any delay or failure to perform all or any part of these Terms if such delay or failure is caused, in whole or in part, by events, occurrences, or causes beyond the control of Mondaq. Such events, occurrences or causes will include, without limitation, acts of God, strikes, lockouts, server and network failure, riots, acts of war, earthquakes, fire and explosions.

By clicking Register you state you have read and agree to our Terms and Conditions